Category: Wisconsin

Wisconsin Congressmen on House Judiciary Committee Expect Some Startling Revelations from Durham Testimony Next Week

M.D. Kittle

The House Judiciary Committee next week will hear testimony from Special Counsel John Durham on his report into the Russia-Trump collusion hoax, and two Wisconsin congressional members on the committee say they expect some startling revelations to come out.

Released last month, Durham’s scathing report found the Department of Justice and FBI “failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity of the law” when they launched an investigation against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016.

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Wisconsin Law Firm Files Civil Rights Complaint Against Sun Prairie Schools over Transgender Shower Incident

M.D. Kittle

The Sun Prairie Area School District now faces a civil rights complaint following an incident earlier this year involving an 18-year-old biological male identifying as a woman who exposed his genitals to four freshman girls in a high school shower.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed the sex discrimination complaint Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.

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Baraboo Schools Accused of Holding Racially Discriminatory Focus Groups on ‘Racism as a Public Health Issue’

M.D. Kittle

The Baraboo School District held focus groups as part of a “Racism as a Public Health Issue” initiative that was exclusively for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) middle schoolers, offering the minority students in attendance a $100 gift card plus a pizza party. 

According to records obtained by The Wisconsin Daily Star, the public health session was part of a $35,000 grant issued to Public Health Sauk County by Governor Tony Evers’ Department of Health Services.

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Measure to Require Parole Information be Published Online Heads to Gov. Evers’ Desk

The Center Square

The fate of a Republican sponsored bill that seeks to compel the state’s parole commission to post its decisions online about who has been granted and denied parole is now in the hands of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

By a 29-4 vote, the Senate recently advanced the measure with some changes after an earlier version of it previously passed the Assembly on the strength of bipartisan support. Under the parameters of the newly proposed measure, the Department of Corrections would be required to post the names of individuals granted parole, denied parole or returned to prison following the revocation of parole.

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Wisconsin Assembly Approves Financial Literacy Class

The Center Square

Students in Wisconsin are a step closer to having to take a financial literacy class to graduate from high school.

The Assembly on Wednesday approved a plan that would require a class on credit, credit cards, investing, and basic financial skills. State Rep. Calvin Callahan, R-Tomahawk, said the idea is to make sure that high schoolers can make smart financial decisions once on their own.

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School Choice in Wisconsin Wins in Day of Breakthrough Education Spending and Revenue Sharing Deals

M.D. Kittle

School choice in Wisconsin would get a huge funding boost, and Milwaukee and Milwaukee County would stave off financial devastation in deals announced Wednesday.

Just when it appeared the Milwaukee portion of a massive state shared revenue plan was on the brink of collapse, the Republican-controlled Legislature reached an agreement with Democrat Governor Tony Evers that will allow pension debt-ridden Milwaukee County and the city to put in place a new sales tax — without having to ask their voters to do so. 

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Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher to Run For House Again, Ending Speculation About a Senate Campaign

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) will seek re-election to his House seat in 2024, ending speculation that he would make a Senate run against two-term Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin. 

The four-term congressman is a rising star in Republican politics, playing a high profile role as chairman of the new Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

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New Report Shows Wisconsin Getting Older, Worsening Labor Shortage Crisis

M.D. Kittle

A new report finds Wisconsin’s median age is rising, a bad sign for the Badger State’s labor shortage crisis, a workforce expert said.

And Governor Tony Evers has been a sleep at the switch in meeting the crisis, according to Rachel Ver Velde, senior director of Workforce, Education & Employment Policy at Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the combined state chamber and manufacturers’ association. 

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Wisconsin Senate Republican Boss: Votes Aren’t There for Share Revenue Tax Changes

The Center Square

The top Republican in the Wisconsin Senate says there are not enough Republican votes to change the plan for a Milwaukee sales tax increase.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said on UPFRONT over the weekend that he doesn’t have the 17 votes needed to pass a plan that would allow Milwaukee and Milwaukee County leaders to raise taxes, as opposed to putting the question to voters.

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Iowa Senator Ernst and Wisconsin Representative Gallagher Introduce Taxpayer Transparency Bill on Dollars Sent to China, Russia

M.D. Kittle

Two Midwest members of congress have joined forces on a bill aimed at creating transparency and accountability for U.S. taxpayer money handed out in China and Russia. 

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) and U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) have introduced the Tracking Receipts to Adversarial Countries for Knowledge of Spending (TRACKS) Act requiring every penny from a government grant paid to any organization in China and Russia to be tracked and publicly disclosed. 

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Wisconsin Elections Commission Chief’s Controversial Tenure May Soon Be Coming to an End

M.D. Kittle

The writing appears to be on the wall for controversial Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe, who is running out of time and friends in the Wisconsin State Senate.

Several legislative sources told The Wisconsin Daily Star that Wolfe doesn’t have enough votes to survive confirmation in the Wisconsin Senate, a reality that would bring her tenure as the administrative head of state elections regulation to an unceremonious end.

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Seek to Make Sexual Harassment in Schools a Felony

The Center Square

Democratic state Reps. Tod Ohnstad and Tip McGuire are pushing legislation that would make it a felony for school staff or volunteers to create an intimidating or hostile environment by sexually harassing students.

In addition to seeking to close a gap in the state’s criminal statutes that currently do not extend to all variations of sexual misconduct that some students have faced in schools, the bill would expand protections that now exist for public school students to all those who attend private schools.

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Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman Leading Investigation Into Biden Administration Decision to Cease DNA Testing At Southern Border

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06) and his subcommittee have opened an investigation into the Biden administration’s decision to end familial DNA testing at the U.S. Mexico border.

DNA testing is a key tool used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to prevent fraudulent entry of migrants posing as family members — critical in targeting child trafficking, according to security officials.

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Green Bay Area Lawmakers Request $2 Million in State Funds to Support NFL Draft at Legendary Lambeau Field

M.D. Kittle

Two Green Bay lawmakers are asking for $2 million from state taxpayers to help cover the costs of Title Town hosting the 2025 NFL draft.

State Senator Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) and State Representative David Steffen (R-Green Bay) argue the return on investment will be significant, with the widely watched NFL draft expected to generate some $94 million for the state — $20 million to Green Bay alone.

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Top Wisconsin Senate Republican Unhappy with ‘Line in the Sand’ over Shared Revenue Specifics

The Center Square

The prospects for Wisconsin’s shared revenue plan got a bit dimmer Thursday after the top Republican in the State Senate said his half of the legislature wants a slightly different plan of their own.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told reporters Thursday morning that the Senate will hold some public hearings, then vote on a version of the shared revenue proposal that Senators agree upon.

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Sun Prairie School District Charges Wisconsin Law Firm $11K to Search for Records Related to Transgender Shower Incident

M.D. Kittle

The Sun Prairie Area School District is charging a Milwaukee-based law firm more than $11,000 for records connected to what witnesses called a “disturbing” incident involving a transgender “woman” in a high school girls’ locker room.

Dan Lennington, deputy legal counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), told The Wisconsin Daily Star that the charge is excessive and the law firm is considering all of its legal options.

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Report: Wisconsin Tax Collections Projections Come in Lower Than Expected

M.D. Kittle

Wisconsin state tax collections over the next three years are projected to come in more than three-quarters of a billion dollars lower than expected, according to a new report from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. 

Republican lawmakers say the revised projections further underscore their efforts to remake a more fiscally responsible biennial budget out of Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ big-spending proposal. 

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Commentary: Wisconsin Rules This Catholic Charity Is Not ‘Primarily’ Religious

RealClearWire

For over a century, the Catholic Charities Bureau of Superior, Wis., has aided people of all faiths: the developmentally disabled, seniors, and children, many of them low income. As Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki recently noted, since the time of Jesus Christ, the Church has had “a mandate from Scripture to serve the poor.”  

The state of Wisconsin disagrees. Its labor division has ruled that the charity is not eligible for a religious exemption from contributing to the state’s unemployment insurance system, because it offers its services free of proselytizing, regardless of clients’ religious background. As a result, Wisconsin’s Labor and Industry Review Commission determined it was essentially a secular organization, not operated for “primarily religious purposes.”

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Wisconsin University System to No Longer Require ‘Diversity Statements’ from Applicants

Admin

The University of Wisconsin (UW) System will no longer require new employees to submit statements outlining their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), CBS 58 Newsroom reported.

UW System President Jay Rothman announced the decision to end diversity statements to lawmakers on Thursday while delivering testimony in front of the state House of Representatives, according to CBS 58. Republican lawmakers, who have expressed interest in eliminating DEI programs, had threatened to cut campus state funding, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

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Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher and His Committee Want Answers from TikTok on Popular App’s Latest Controversial Activities

M.D. Kittle

It seems TikTok just can’t quit its creeping ways. 

U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08), chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,  is seeking answers from the controversial video hosting site on allegations of ongoing censorship and monitoring of individuals, including those who view LGBTQ-related content on the platform. 

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GOP Senators Demand Biden Account for Taxpayer Money Used in Federalized GOTV Effort

M.D. Kittle

As the Biden administration goes about the legally suspect quest of federalizing get-out-the-vote efforts, more than a dozen U.S. senators are asking for an accounting of the “Promoting Access to Voting” campaign. 

U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Bill Haggerty (R-TN) are among the 14 Republican senators who sent a letter to Biden requesting full transparency on Executive Order 14019, which directs federal agencies to submit strategic plans to the White House describing how they will use taxpayer-funded resources to “provide access to voter registration services and vote-by-mail ballot applications.” 

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Republican Lawmakers Pitch ‘Dirty Book’ Ban in Wisconsin Schools

The Center Square

The latest plan to limit the books on school library shelves in Wisconsin could lead to lawsuits over “obscene materials.”

State Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, and Republican state Sen. Andre Jacque, R-DePere, are looking for support for their plans to ban material they deem obscene from school libraries, as well as allow parents to sue librarians if they break the law.

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Wisconsin Legislative Budget Committee Axes Controversial Plan for Office of Election Transparency and Compliance

M.D. Kittle

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week rejected a plan by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to create a $2 million Office of Election Transparency and Compliance. 

While the proposed bureaucracy’s name suggests election integrity, it would be built by WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe, the same bureaucrat who has presided over an agency riddled with election integrity complaints and election law violations. 

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Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Threatens to Veto Republicans’ Shared Revenue Plan

M.D. Kittle

Republican leadership is blasting Governor Tony Evers for threatening to kill a bill that would boost state shared revenue and bail out financially troubled Milwaukee. 

The liberal governor, however, isn’t the only critic of the legislation that pours hundreds of millions of dollars of new taxpayer revenue into Badger State towns, villages, cities and counties. 

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Wisconsin’s Largest Business Advocate Applauds Republicans’ Removal of Hundreds of Governor Tony Evers’ Proposals from Budget

M.D. Kittle

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week jettisoned 545 of liberal Governor Tony Evers’ budget proposals, packed with higher taxes on businesses and individuals and growing government initiatives.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business advocate, is applauding the Republican-controlled budget-writing committee for trimming Evers’ bigger government budget plan. 

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Wisconsin Measure Would Allow Teens as Young as 14 to Serve Alcohol

The Center Square

Teenagers as young as 14 could soon be allowed to serve alcohol to seated customers in bars and restaurants if a measure being advanced by a pair of state GOP lawmakers passes.

Current law allows only workers 18 and older to perform such duties, and “causes workforce issues due to an establishment’s underage employees only being able to do part of their job,” Sen. Rob Stafsholt, of New Richmond, and Rep. Chanz Green, of Grandview, said, as they are now pushing the bill and seeking more cosponsors.

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Exclusive: Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Report Urges Ending ‘Taxation Without Representation’ in Funding Badger State Tech Colleges

M.D. Kittle

A new report finds Badger State homeowners pay nearly a half-billion dollars annually in property taxes to fund Wisconsin’s technical colleges, a figure expected to grow in the next biennial budget. 

But in Wisconsin there are no directly elected members to authorize these taxes, creating a system of “taxation without representation,” according to the study from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL). 

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Wisconsin Ending COVID Emergency, Health Officials Continue Warnings

The Center Square

Wisconsin’s coronavirus emergency is ending, but the state’s public health managers are continuing to urge people to get vaccinated and “take care of their health.”

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services on Wednesday said the state will be transitioning away from its emergency footing as the Biden Administration prepares to end the national coronavirus emergency on May 11.

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